The preparation of a beverage by a capsule containing beverage ingredients is known. In general, the capsule is inserted in a beverage extraction device, such as a coffee machine, liquid is fed in the capsule, the liquid interacts with the beverage ingredients and a beverage is extracted from the capsule under pressure or by gravity.
The preparation of a beverage by using the centrifugation is known. The principle mainly consists in providing beverage ingredients in a container of the capsule, feeding liquid in the receptacle and rotating the receptacle at elevated speed to ensure interaction of liquid with ingredients while creating a gradient of pressure of liquid in the receptacle; such pressure increasing gradually from the centre towards the periphery of the receptacle. As liquid traverses the ingredients, such as ground coffee, extraction of the food compounds takes place and a liquid extract is obtained that flows out at the periphery of the receptacle.
The term “capsule” refers to any flexible, rigid or semi-rigid packaging container containing beverage ingredients. Other synonyms to a capsule are: “pod”, “pad”, “cartridge” or “sachet”. The capsule can be designed for a single use. The container can also be filled with ingredients by the user to form the capsule just before use.
The term “ingredients” means any suitable beverage substance such as ground coffee, soluble coffee, leaf tea, soluble tea, herbal tea, dairy powder, culinary powder, baby food, other beverage nutritional ingredients and any combinations thereof.
A capsule system and method for preparing a beverage from a capsule using centrifugation forces is described in the following documents: EP2210539, WO2008/148604, WO2008/148650, WO2008/148646, WO2008/148656 and WO2010/026045, WO 2008/148834, WO 2010/066705A1 and WO 2010/063644.
It is known to use a capsule in a beverage brewing device using centrifugation wherein a closing wall of the capsule is removed or perforated for enabling insertion of beverage extracting means.
In WO2008/148601, a capsule for use in a centrifugal extraction device is disclosed. The capsule comprises a lid and a body attached to the lid via a peripheral deflectable sealing means which opens by effect of the centrifugal effect to let the food liquid pass. The deflectable sealing means comprises at least one peripheral plastic lip engaged in a seat. A problem of such sealing means configuration lies in that the centrifugal forces exerted by the centrifuged liquid tend to separate the lid from the body of the capsule. In order to avoid this separation, the lid must be supported by a rotating part of the device while at the same time be given a sufficient flexibility at the periphery of the capsule to allow the sealing means to open for allowing release of the centrifuged beverage. Therefore, the beverage flow leaving the capsule is highly dependent on the mechanical closure forces exerted by the device on the capsule. In particular, the beverage flow can be hindered by flow restrictions due to the compressive forces of the device on the lid.
There is a need for providing a solution that alleviates this problem.